Russia's long shadow across Eastern European elections

WITH SO MUCH focus on elections in the U.S., it's easy to miss the political news from two countries that remain in Russia's long shadow. In Georgia and Moldova, two former Soviet republics, voters have recently cast ballots amid accusations that Russian interference helped shape the outcome in both countries.

- IAN BREMMER

In Georgia, the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia bloc declared victory in the country's Oct. 26 parliamentary elections with nearly 55% of the vote. Four separate opposition factions rejected the results with charges that strong backing from Vladimir Putin had helped the ruling party steal an election they claim was "blatantly rigged."

In fact, exit surveys conducted by Western agencies Edison Research and HarrisX for opposition-aligned TV stations estimated the ruling party had won just 42% of the vote. Western election observers said the elections were plagued by distribution of premarked ballots, the removal of observers from polling stations, breaches of voting confidentiality, ballot stuffing, and intimidation of some voters at polling stations.